About Me

What can I say?? I just love to bake!!
Ever since I would go to Grandma's house as a little girl and bake highlight cakes or help Ninny make her famous vanilla cookies, I've been obsessed with baking! Not only from recipe books, but freestyle too! With a father as a chef, i suppose it is in my genes! Some of my favourite memories from growing up were those moments after dinner when my dad would get his sweet tooth pang and have me help him whip up a batch of toffee fruit kebabs, or irish caramels! I used to love how he never followed recipes, he always just knew what ingredients worked with one another and how to play with quantities. So, from an early age, i had learnt from the master and i was well on my way to bake on my own!
When i was 7 years old, i used to bake chocoloate cakes to sell to the mothers of my friends when they came to watch our Saturday morning minkey hockey games! Before i knew it, i was being commissioned from my school teachers to bake cakes for them at $2 a pop! This blog holds just a few of my favourite tried and tested recipes which I've thoroughly enjoyed both baking and eating! So enjoy!!

Wednesday, 25 August 2010

Cinnabons!

What would Good Friday morning be without freshly baked Cinnabons?! They are at their very best freshly out of the oven, so prepare them ahead of time and whack them in the oven when your brunch buddies arrive... they'll love you forever for it, i can assure you!

**You could always get a little more creative and put some sultanas or diced apple on the dough before you roll them into pinwheels. Go on, go crazy!

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and 7 tablespoons sugar in warm water. Once dissolved, stir in the salt and half of the flour. Beat the mixture for 2 minutes then beat in the eggs and oil. Stir in the remaining flour, a little at a time and beating well after each addition.

2. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, (this will take you about 5 minutes). Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, (this will take about 40 minutes). In a small bowl, stir together remaining sugar and 1 dessertspoon cinnamon; set aside.

3. Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces. Take each piece of dough, roll into a log and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll up the log into a pinwheel and place the pinwheels in a lightly greased 23x33 cm (9x13 in) baking tin. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, (this will take about 40 minutes). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until golden.

5. I like to make a cinnamon icing mixture (icing sugar with cinnamon, mixed together with a little water) and drizzle ontop of warm cinnabons to serve! Num num num!!